St. Agnes claims state softball crown

By: ERIK SWANSON

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, June 3, 2004

After a regular season in which its results were increasingly impressive with each passing game, the St. Agnes varsity softball team followed the same late-blooming formula in the TAPPS state Class 5A championship game. After entering the fifth inning trailing 3-0 against the Victoria St. Joseph Lady Flyers, the Lady Tigers roared to life with a rally that left them on the winning end of a hard-fought 4-3 battle.

St. Agnes comeback in the championship game mirrored the rally it made in the regular season. After a dismal early record that included a last-place finish (32nd) in their first tournament, the Lady Tigers rebounded, coasting through their district games with an undefeated record.

I think that, basically, we all realized that we werent trying our hardest, we werent taking it as seriously as we could have, and we just had to pull together as a team, explains Julia Christopher, a junior outfielder for St. Agnes.

Once they started winning, the Lady Tigers were not going to be stopped in their quest to avenge last seasons loss in the championship game.

Once we started getting on a roll, we were just determined to win it, says Connie Ser, another junior outfielder for the Lady Tigers. We had gotten so close last year, and it was such an emotional game, that we wanted to take it back this year.

Much like its woes in the early stages of the regular season, St. Agnes performance through the first four innings of the championship game made improbable the likelihood that it would be the team to storm the field in celebration three innings later. The Lady Tigers were not playing especially poorly, but they had run into a strong team with a dominant pitcher who held them to one hit through those first four innings.

At the end of the fourth inning, all the captains were getting fired up, and everyone, at that moment, right before we were about to go hit, decided that we wanted to win state, says Christopher, revealing the impetus behind the teams comeback. It was that mental decision that really helped us turn around the game and win state.

Its ability to rebound from poor starts already exhibited in the regular season, St. Agnes was not to be discounted. The Lady Tigers notched one run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Allison Conn singled up the middle to bring home pinch runner Jamie Colley, narrowing the run deficit to two.

Though unable to score any more runs in the fifth inning, St. Agnes picked up where it left off in the bottom of the sixth, when five of the first six batters got hits. After Ceci Goforths second hit of the game scored Jocie Breckon to tie the score at 3-3, Christopher followed with a bunt single that brought Carla Beutlich across the plate for a 4-3 lead.

St. Joseph managed two quick outs to end the Lady Tigers rally, but the damage had been done. Riding the wave of momentum, Goforth, who worked the final 1 2/3 innings in relief for St. Agnes, induced three consecutive outs from the St. Joseph hitters in the top of the seventh inning, culminating in a strikeout that brought the Lady Tigers onto the field in celebration.

Rewarded for her no-hit relief performance, Goforth was named to the all-tournament team, along with teammates Conn, Megan Gegan and Lorin Leatherwood.